News outlets say US drone ban breaches First Amendment

Drone-journalism ban has "impermissible chilling" effect on First Amendment.

A coalition of more than a dozen news outlets is telling the Obama administration that its ban on the commercial use of drones—and "drone journalism" in general—goes against the First Amendment.

"This overly broad policy, implemented through a patchwork of regulatory and policy statements and an ad hoc cease-and-desist enforcement process, has an impermissible chilling effect on the First Amendment newsgathering rights of journalists," the media told the National Transportation Safety Board.

The filing was submitted in a Federal Aviation Administration appeal to a National Transportation Safety Board administrative judge's ruling that said the FAA illegally adopted the ban on the commercial use of small drones, and therefore the 2007 regulations are unenforceable.

The media groups signing on to the filing include Advance Publications (the owner of Condé Nast, Ars Technica's parent company), The Associated Press, Cox Media Group, Gannett, Gray Television, Hearst, McClatchy, the National Press Photographers Association, the National Press Club, The New York Times, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Radio-Television Digital News Association, Scripps Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the Tribune Company, and The Washington Post.

In response, the FAA said the administrative law judge's earlier decision puts in jeopardy "the safe operation of the national airspace system and the safety of people and property on the ground."

David Kravets / The senior editor for Ars Technica. Founder of TYDN fake news site. Technologist. Political scientist. Humorist. Dad of two boys. Been doing journalism for so long I remember manual typewriters with real paper.